Chapter 973

The Devil Supreme's sneak attack went unnoticed by Wu Tie.

Translation: "The Devil Supreme's sneak attack, even Wu Tie could not detect."

The Devil Supreme's sneak attack—even Wu Tie could not detect it.

We need to keep punctuation? We'll output as a single line.

The nine‑dragon‑wreathed great hammer slammed hard into Wu Tie's back of the head, unleashing a thunderous blast that shattered more than ten layers of Shanfeng City's defensive grand formation.

Translation: "The Nine Dragon Entwined Great Hammer heavily struck Wu Tie's occiput, a tremendous roar that shook heaven and earth, causing Shanfeng City's City Defense Grand Formation to collapse over ten layers."

It caused Shanfeng City's City Defense Grand Formation to collapse over ten layers.

Wu Tie was blown by the hammer, his eyes bulging, true fire mixed with blood spurting from his seven orifices, his body staggering forward several hundred steps; the void beneath his feet turned into a viscous gel, each step leaving a three‑inch‑deep footprint in the void.

Translation: "Wu Tie was blown by the hammer, his eyes bulging, threads of true fire mixed with blood spurting from his seven apertures, his body staggering forward several hundred steps. The void beneath Wu Tie's feet turned into a viscous gel, each of his steps leaving a footprint three inches deep in the void."

Note: several hundred steps, each footprint three inches deep.

Amidst a hissing sound, the footprints Wu Tie left in the void burst forth with blinding light; straight, footprint‑shaped rays of spiritual light poured down, easily piercing Shanfeng City's defensive grand formation.

Translation: "With a 'hiss-hiss' sound, the footprints Wu Tie left in the void burst with blinding light, straight beams of footprint-shaped spiritual light pouring down, easily piercing Shanfeng City's City Defense Grand Formation."

Wu Tie, dizzy and blurred, rushed forward three hundred sixty steps, leaving three hundred sixty footprints in the void; beneath him, Shanfeng City was likewise blasted with three hundred sixty bottomless, one‑foot‑square footprints.

Translation: "Wu Tie, dizzy and blurred, hurried forward three hundred sixty steps, leaving three hundred sixty footprints in the void; beneath him in Shanfeng City, likewise three hundred sixty footprints were blasted, each a square foot deep without bottom."

Each footprint was a bottomless, one‑foot‑square pit.

Threads of hot air spewed from those three hundred sixty footprints; after a moment, crimson magma surged up from them, rolling forth.

Translation: "Threads of hot air spewed from those three hundred sixty footprints; after a while, crimson magma surged rolling out of the footprints."

Within Shanfeng City, the foundations of the various defensive grand formations burst with blinding firelight, emitting a deep, thunderous roar.

Translation: "Within Shanfeng City, the bases of the City Defense Grand Formation everywhere burst with blinding light, emitting a dull thunderous roar."

When Wu Tie was attacked, an uncontrolled leak of his magical energy directly destroyed Shanfeng City's defensive grand formation.

Translation: "Wu Tie being attacked, an uncontrolled leak of a thread of magical power from his body directly destroyed Shanfeng City's City Defense Grand Formation."

The high‑ranking members of the Fu Feng Divine Dynasty—Fu Feng You Ran, Fu Feng Ya Si, and others—stood stunned, their bodies icy cold, their blood nearly freezing.

Translation: "Fu Feng Youran, Fu Feng Yasi and other high-ranking members of the Fu Feng Divine Dynasty stared dumbfounded, each feeling icy cold all over, their blood nearly congealing."

If Wu Tie had been killed by the Devil Supreme's sneak attack, given the Devil Supreme's temperament, since he personally came to Shanfeng City, the city would surely be doomed.

Translation: "If Wu Tie were killed by this sneak attack of the Devil Supreme, given the Devil Supreme's temper, since he personally came to Shanfeng City, Shanfeng City would surely be doomed."

The Devil Supreme threw his head back and laughed wildly; strands of demonic energy rose from his crown, spreading slowly outward in the air a hundred li above the ground, forming a six‑spoked, thousand‑zhang‑diameter great wheel that slowly turned in the sky.

Translation: "The Devil Supreme laughed loudly to the heavens, strands of demonic qi rising from his head, slowly spreading outward in the air a hundred li above ground, forming a six-spoked great wheel of a thousand zhang diameter slowly rotating in the sky."

Within the six‑spoked wheel, six‑colored orbs flickered in and out of view, while countless strands of extraordinary, mysterious light burst forth, imparting an uncanny pressure as if the very creation of heaven and earth were inscrutable.

Translation: "Within the six-spoked great wheel, six-colored light clusters flickered in and out, strands of wondrously mysterious light gushing forth, giving a sense of heavenly creation, an unfathomable strange pressure."

The Devil Supreme, who wielded the great hammer and struck Wu Tie with it, also gave a low, grim laugh.

Translation: "The Devil Supreme wielding the great hammer, who had struck Wu Tie with a hammer blow, also laughed lowly."

Compared with the Devil Supreme's arrogant, overbearing, tyrannical laughter, the laugh of the hammer‑wielding Devil Supreme was elusive and unpredictable, evoking a strange sense of harmony between man and heaven, a perfect attunement with the cosmos.

Translation: "Compared with the Devil Supreme's arrogant, overbearing, despotic, lawless laughter, the laughter of this Devil Supreme wielding the great hammer was elusive and unpredictable, giving a strange feeling of harmony between man and heaven, perfectly attuned to heaven and earth."

"What a move!" Wu Tie steadied his body, rose upright, and wiped a hand across the back of his head.

Translation: ""What a fine move!" Wu Tie steadied his body, rose upright, and wiped his hand over the back of his head."

The back of his head was sticky with blood, his scalp shattered, yet his bones were tough; despite taking that blow from the sneak attack, his skull suffered no damage at all.

Translation: "The back of his head was sticky with fresh blood, Wu Tie's scalp smashed to pieces, but his bones were quite sturdy; having taken that hammer blow from the sneak attack, his skull suffered no damage at all."

He drew a deep breath; the blood flowing from the back of his head quickly returned to the wound, and the blasted flesh there healed in an instant.

Translation: "He drew a deep breath; the fresh blood flowing from the back of his head quickly returned to the wound, the blasted flesh of the occiput healing in an instant."

Wu Tie shook his head and smiled at the Devil Supreme: "What a technique—no sign at all… Hmm, what kind of divine ability is this? This avatar is pretty good—it came through the void silently and soundlessly; taking that blow, I have no complaints."

Translation: "Wu Tie shook his head and smiled at the Devil Supreme: ""What a fine move—there wasn't the slightest sign… Hmm, what divine ability is this? This incarnation is quite good, coming through the void soundlessly and silently; this hammer blow, I don't resent taking it.""

The Devil Supreme and the Hammer‑Wielding Devil Supreme both sighed: "Too bad we couldn't kill you."

Translation: "The Devil Supreme and the Great Hammer Devil Supreme sighed together: ""Too bad, we couldn't kill you.""

At the same time the Devil Venerable and the Hammer avatar sighed, another avatar of the Devil Venerable silently appeared behind Wu Tie, holding a three-pronged fiery trident and silently stabbing toward his back.

This time, after taking a sneak attack, Wu Tie's soul power fully unfurled, and he overlapped tens of thousands of layers of void barriers around himself; the Devil Venerable's avatar wielding the fiery trident once again managed to slip past Wu Tie's soul scan, but when the trident touched the void barrier, it finally alerted Wu Tie.

Wu Tie reached back and seized the fiery trident.

The fiery trident spewing black flames emitted a piercing screech as it tore through space; within Wu Tie's void barrier, a slice of void thinner than a cicada's wing had accumulated at least a span of space stretching ten thousand li.

If those tens of thousands of void barrier layers were spread out flat, they would stretch a distance of hundreds of millions of li.

Ordinary attacks either cannot cross such a vast void of hundreds of millions of li, or would take a long time to do so.

However, the fiery trident, letting out a piercing screech, with its sharp prong slicing through the void like silk, tore through Wu Tie's barrier and instantly appeared behind him.

With a loud 'Ding', Wu Tie seized the fiery trident with one hand, but the longest prong among the three struck his back heavily. His clothes shattered, revealing skin like glazed vajra, and sparks flew between the prong and his skin.

Hmph!

Wu Tie let out a cold snort and fiercely lifted the fiery trident in his hand.

The Devil Venerable's avatar wielding the fiery trident struggled to contend, but his strength was far inferior to Wu Tie's; Wu Tie seized him and flung him far away.

With a loud 'Screech', the Devil Venerable's avatar wielding the fiery trident was flung thousands of li away, his body dragging a long rift in the void; just as he was about to crash into a great mountain, the void around him writhed, he vanished, and after a breath appeared beside the Devil Venerable's avatar holding the great hammer.

Wu Tie raised an eyebrow, looking at the Devil Venerable's avatar wielding the fiery trident, and said, "Void Dao? Not bad, not bad."

Able to easily pierce Wu Tie's void barrier, this Devil Venerable's avatar wielding the fiery trident has surely already condensed a Space Dao Seal in his cultivation of the Grand Dao of Space, reaching Venerable level.

"What kind of avatar divine ability is this? Quite extraordinary." Wu Tie sincerely praised the Devil Venerable.

The Devil Venerable burst into laughter, "hahaha", laughing for a while, then said in a deep voice, "Not only that... this divine ability, even those old monsters of my Supreme Devil Kingdom have never seen me use it."

Another avatar of the Devil Venerable appeared out of thin air, but this one appeared directly before Wu Tie, who then suddenly opened his huge mouth and swallowed him deeply.

With a loud 'Crack', the void within a li of Wu Tie collapsed; this chunk of void was actually cut and torn directly from the surrounding space by this Devil Venerable's avatar, the void sank and collapsed, revealing a pitch-black hole deep in his mouth that emitted an endless bloody stench.

"Break!" Wu Tie's hands glowed faintly with spiritual light as he unleashed the Myriad Tribulation Hand cultivated from the Myriad Transformations Classic of the Qinglian Observatory to its fullest; waves of strange spiritual light swept across the void, the shattered void quickly stabilized, then the void healed and calmed, and the Devil Venerable's avatar before him let out a mournful cry, spewing large amounts of black-red blood plasma from his throat.

The divine ability was shattered, and backlash descended.

Wu Tie then shook his hand and hurled a thunderfire condensed from innate yin-yang qi into the avatar's maw, riding the swallowing force it flew into his belly, and with a loud 'Boom' it exploded.

This avatar staggered, blood and water, lightning and fire light continually spewing from its seven orifices, its body swaying as it kept stumbling backward.

He retreated to the side of the Hammer Devil Venerable and the Fork Devil Venerable, spitting blood while muttering, "He's tough to deal with, but I like it—the harder someone is to deal with, the more chewy they taste—just like when we vied for the throne with the Seventh Prince, I licked his thigh bit by bit for three years before I finished him off."

Wu Tie narrowed his eyes at the Devil Venerable's three avatars, hearing that avatar's bloody words, then looking at the six-spoked great wheel above the Devil Venerable's head, a flicker of inspiration crossed his mind: "Hehe, such avatars, you should still have three more, right? Don't hide them—bring them out."

The Devil Venerable's and his three avatars' faces suddenly shifted, their expressions nearly identical as they stared wide-eyed at Wu Tie.

"You figured it out?" the Devil Venerable exclaimed in astonishment, "No way, in this day and age, how could you possibly have such insight?"

"The Law of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, condensed into Six Paths of Reincarnation avatars." Wu Tie said in a deep voice, "The first one that sneak-attacked me was the Heavenly Dao, right? Its aura harmonizes with heaven and earth, the creation of heaven and man, infinitely profound."

"The second one that sneak-attacked me was the Asura Path, right? Asuras possess power beyond heaven; piercing the void is just a trivial matter for them."

"The third one that sneak-attacked me must be the Hungry Ghost Path. Did you really swallow your brother who vied with you for the throne?" Wu Tie looked at the Devil Venerable with disgust.

The Devil Venerable lightly clapped, he chuckled, "He shouldn't have contended with me; since he did, he deserved to die."

Behind him, a vast expanse of black clouds roiled, and a strange, bizarre black demon beast slowly walked out from the clouds—dragon head, ox body, eagle claws, serpent tail; beneath its ribs grew two rows of twenty-four pitch-black eyes; on its head sprouted six coiled scarlet great horns; this demon beast exuded a suffocating ferocity, and every strand of its fur continually dripped viscous fluid.

Those viscous fluids, upon contacting the air, soon began to roll with a pungent stench, turning into black smoke that wrapped around the demon beast.

Greed, madness, all the world's evil thoughts tangled together, after an unfathomable transformation, became this black liquid, black smoke... extreme defilement, extreme degradation...

On the ground, merely glancing at this demon beast caused the citizens of Shanfeng City to immediately undergo all kinds of twisted changes.

They grew scales, horns, black fur sprouted from their bodies, sharp fangs grew in their mouths... just a glance at this demon beast, and tens of thousands of Shanfeng City's citizens began to transform into livestock.

Inside Shanfeng City, chaos erupted; countless citizens fled in panic, daring not to approach that area any longer.

"The Animal Path." Wu Tie said in a deep voice, "No wonder it's the Animal Path that never allows rebirth—such evil, such monstrosity... but being able to twist an avatar into such hideousness, I must admit I'm impressed."

That demon beast, thousands of zhang long, with a foul, degraded aura, let out a low roar; its body slowly writhed, gradually taking human form. He was naked, without a scrap of cloth, and he bared himself toward Wu Tie with a low, savage grin.

With a soft 'hiss', just as the demon beast roared at Wu Tie, a black shadow appeared behind him; he held a black seal and silently smashed it down onto Wu Tie's head.

The surrounding void trembled with a dark wind, accompanied by a piercing rumble; the void beneath Wu Tie's feet suddenly collapsed, revealing a vast, boundless strange world. Looking down from the rift in the collapsed void, this world is divided into eighteen layers from top to bottom, containing mountains of blades, seas of fire, oil cauldrons of molten rock, and countless other horrors.

In this strange world, faintly visible are countless blurred figures with twisted faces, torn skin, mangled flesh, missing arms and legs, staring blankly at the sky, continually emitting desperate wails.

In the next instant, countless blurred flesh-and-blood arms stretched out from that world and grabbed at Wu Tie's body.

You are guilty…… come!

Come keep us company, keep us company……

Why can you frolic freely outside while we must endure this endless torment?

Drag him down, drag him down……

The shrill howl was like countless beasts roaring, that twisted, despairing howl that drives people utterly mad and senseless made Wu Tie feel waves of dizziness, his body suddenly sank, and he was about to fall into that strange world.

Ha, Hell Dao! Indeed formidable. Wu Tie suddenly burst into loud laughter, he shouted: "But how dare you make me fall into Hell?"

With a booming sound, behind Wu Tie a disc tens of thousands of zhang in diameter, thick and solid like a pure gold pancake, the Meritorious Golden Light appeared. Boundless Golden Light, Boundless Qi, boundless like a blazing sun, the magnificent Righteous Heaven-Earth Qi roared outward in all directions.

This illusory Hell World vanished with a whoosh, leaving no trace.

The Hell Dao Avatar that Wu Tie had ambushed from behind let out a soul‑rending shriek, its body suddenly disintegrated, exploding into strands of extremely dim, almost vanishing smoke that darted toward the Supreme Devil.

But the Meritorious Golden Disc behind Wu Tie was too powerful; the Boundless Golden Light illuminated the void, and even if the Supreme Devil's Hell Dao Avatar fled as fast as it could, it could not outrun the light's radiation.

The golden flames filling the sky condensed into liquid, forming a golden ocean that soaked all things.

On the ground, upon seeing the Animal Dao Avatar, the citizens of Mountain Wind City whose bodies had mutated all exhaled together; strands of black smoke continually rose from them, and their mutations vanished instantly.

A desperate, shrill wail sounded, and the Supreme Devil's Hell Dao Avatar completely melted and dissipated in the golden light filling the sky, leaving not a trace.

The Supreme Devil's true form shuddered, and thick blood plasma spurted like a spring from all seven orifices.

His aura plummeted, instantly weakening by about fifty‑percent, and the four great avatars beside him—Heaven Dao, Asura Dao, Animal Dao, and Hungry Ghost Dao—all cried out in sorrow together.

Among the four avatars, the Heaven Dao Avatar was relatively unscathed; through Heaven‑Human transformation, its aura subtly harmonized with heaven and earth, and it suffered the lightest damage from the Meritorious Golden Light, hardly any at all.

The Asura Dao, Animal Dao, and Hungry Ghost Dao—especially the Animal Dao Avatar—were like chicken wings soaked in aqua regia, constantly emitting black smoke and dripping black water, their bodies rapidly shrinking; both flesh and soul suffered irreparable, devastating harm.

"Boundless merit…… nowadays, who still has this kind of great good person? How stupid must one be to foolishly accumulate so much merit?" The Supreme Devil and his several avatars howled in despair, each shouting like a madman.

A soft beam of white light gently fell; a nine‑tiered treasure pagoda hovered in the void, each tier holding a relic the size of a sea bowl, emitting soft Buddha light that blocked Wu Tie's wildly scattered Meritorious Golden Light.

A youth who looked exactly like the Supreme Devil but with a gentle demeanor, clad in a simple white monk's robe, sat cross‑legged above the pagoda, his clear gaze fixed on Wu Tie: "Benefactor, please show mercy."

Wu Tie gazed at the white‑clad youth and couldn't help but sigh to the heavens: "Marvelous, your Human Dao Avatar is actually a Buddhist cultivator… hehe, Supreme Devil, I admire you, I truly admire you… you're preparing to ambush those old devils of your Supreme Devil Realm, aren't you?"